In 1919, after completing eighth grade, he joined his older brother's stock theater company,[1][2] and between 1926 and 1944, he became the owner and manager of various entertainment enterprises.

His first political campaign was in 1938 for an open seat in the United States House of Representatives from the second district, but he finished a distant fourth in the Democratic primary.

[7] Taylor first ran for the United States Senate in 1940 in a special election to fill the remaining term of the late William Borah, but lost to appointee John Thomas, with 47.1 to 52.9 percent.

[6] In his third try for the Senate, Taylor ran for the other Idaho seat in 1944, narrowly defeating conservative incumbent D. Worth Clark in the Democratic primary, and Governor C. A. Bottolfsen in the general election.

[10][11][12][13] When Taylor moved to Washington in preparation to be sworn in in January 1945, the housing shortage caused by World War II was still in full swing and so he and his family had a difficult time finding a place to live.

[16]On election night in 1946, Taylor made national headlines by allegedly breaking the jaw of local Republican leader Ray McKaig in a hotel lobby in Boise.

Taylor also feuded with other Idaho Democrats, often making critical remarks about Charles C. Gossett, who resigned as governor in November 1945 to have his successor appoint him to the vacant Senate seat.

He was particularly critical of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, both of which he believed brought the United States closer to war with the Soviet Union.

[8] Taylor was an early proponent of the Civil Rights Movement and, as senator, openly opposed supporters and policies of racial segregation.

[29] When Taylor refused to return to Alabama to serve a 180-day sentence of hard labor, Idaho Governor C. A. Robins declined to extradite him.

It contributed to Taylor's primary defeat by Clark,[31] who in turn lost in the general election to conservative Republican Herman Welker.

Source:[32] Taylor served as president of Coryell Construction Company from 1950 to 1952 but was forced to resign after being labeled a "security risk," jeopardizing a government contract.

His sixth and final Senate attempt came in 1956; he narrowly lost the Democratic primary to 32-year-old lawyer Frank Church,[33][34][35][36] and then got 5.1 percent of the vote in the general election as a write-in candidate.

Taylor told The Washington Post in 1978 that he was very familiar with them: "I was 18, a juvenile leading man in a traveling show, and my hair had begun to fall out.

Taylor explained that he had run for public office without the hairpiece and found that voters "didn't have much use for bald politicians" but that "I ran the fourth time with it and won."